Stan Looks for Answers

Here it is, the first of the year, and I’m taking the opportunity to hit a few balls and work on my swing. It’s cold out, and the heated bay at Woodmont where I teach, with its V-1 computer system, is the perfect place to really grind away on the swing glitches that have plagued me over the many years I have played competitive golf. I’ve got the I-pod on (jamming to the Black Crowes latest), and I’m having a good old time. When the weather is even half decent I’m always jammed with lessons, so the dead of winter, when I’ll have hours open, is the best time to prepare for the coming year, one in which I will turn 50, which in itself opens up new opportunities. The bay door is up, and even though its 25 degrees out I’m watching the ball fly and analyzing each swing on the screen. I’ve been working out for 2 hours every morning, and with all this technology at my disposal I figure that at some point I have to start hitting the ball better. I’ve been working on some of the stuff Jim Hardy is proposing in his “one plane swing”, and I feel that armed with some new ideas I am finally addressing some of my age-old swing headaches. As always I have my cell phone in my pocket, and I’m addressing another shot when I feel it vibrate.

Wayne: “Hello, this is Wayne”.

Stan: “Wayne-o, its Stan”.

Wayne: “Stan, how the hell are you?”

Stan: “I’m great. What’s going on? Are you teaching?”

Wayne: “No, just hitting some balls. What are you up to?”

Stan: “Well, I just got back from Cabo. What a place. Played every day.”

Wayne: “That’s cool. I’ve heard Cabo is great. Never been there, though. So how did you play?”

Stan: “Good and bad, you know how it is. But, you know, playing everyday had me thinking about golf. I mean all the time. Like all these questions kept popping into my head. I figured I’d talk to you and maybe get some answers.”

Wayne: “Geez, Stan. That could take all day. Why don’t you come over for a lesson and we’ll talk while we look at your swing?”

Stan: “You know- that’s a great idea. I may not even swing. If you can answer some of these questions I know I’ll feel much better. What are you doing today?”

Wayne: “I’ve got nothing the rest of the day. When can you get here?”

Stan: “I’ll be there in an hour.”

Wayne: “Super. I’ll meet you here”.

Now, you might think that I would be dreading a session of mostly talking, but on the contrary, I enjoy talking about golf. One of the reasons I’m still writing for Golf Styles after all these years (going on 11) is that I am constantly involved with the process of not only helping my students, but myself as well. I am a pretty good player with a nice resume’ for a Club Professional, but I have certainly not approached my potential as a player. I know I can get better, and I know that I can get better at helping my students, and I am always exploring every avenue to do so. For some reason I have the ability to write pretty much what I think, and since I think about golf all the time I always have something to write about. When someone like Stan prods me with questions about the game it makes me look at things from a different perspective. I want to explain things and educate Stan, while at the same time I am listening to myself and learning from my own answers, watching carefully for original ideas that may pop up from my own explanations. In other words, there is no script, and what I will say to Stan as he probes my knowledge of the game is likely to be different from any answer I have ever given, maybe not completely, but there will be elements that are new and fresh, and these are the things that add to my ability to convey the intricacies of the game that are so elusive. Originality is a scarce commodity in the golf business, and when I find it, within my own thoughts or from someone else, it is an exciting prospect. Anyway, I’ve hit a few more shots, and Stan is walking into the bay.

Stan: “What’s up, my man?”

Wayne: “I’m good. All right, I’m ready for you. What’s on your mind?”

Stan: “Well, first off, I have to tell you a little about how I played in Mexico. Now, I know it wasn’t a tournament, and we’ve talked about how you have to test yourself under pressure to really know how your game is working, but we were playing for some decent money, and I hate to lose to any of these guys, so I count this as a pretty good test. To make a long story short, I was all over the place. The first day I shot 81, which you know is good for me, but I followed that up with an 88. Then, the next day, I shot 78…

Wayne: Wait a minute. You shot 78?

Stan: Yeah. Can you believe it? And the next day, 92! I’m like a complete spaz.

Wayne: Careful now. You know that “spaz” is not politically correct. But I know exactly what you mean. It’s the same for golfers on every level. A tour pro will follow a 64 with a 74, and feel like he played just as well.

Stan: OK, so what’s that all about?

Wayne: Well, recent research shows that even with great technique and lots of practice physical acts are never really the same from one attempt to the next, at least not precisely the same. They measured a monkey’s response to a simple task, grabbing for food after a certain stimulus, and found that the response time was always a bit different. By measuring brain patterns they found that the brain never patterned the response in the same fashion twice, even though the task was exactly the same and the results were always positive.

Stan: Yeah, so what?

Wayne: The theory is that the brain is not conditioned to make the same response over and over. Evolution has prepared animals and especially man to be able to react to continually different circumstances, which, of course, is what happens in real life. The desire to repeat something precisely the same way every time goes against this natural brain activity.

Stan: So you’re saying that practice is fruitless, that no one will ever “get it” just right?

Wayne: No, not really. Practice serves its purpose, but it is helpful to remember that no matter how much you practice or how good your technique is you are going to fail to perform at random times. Being “better” is about improving your percentages. You will hit more good shots and less bad ones the better you get, but you will never hit all good ones.

Stan: So that Bob Rotini guy really knew what he was talking about when he said that “golf is not a game of perfect”.

Wayne: It’s Rotella, and it would seem so.

Stan: What about when I get nervous and screw up because I can’t handle the situation I’m in?

Wayne: I happen to think that’s a whole different thing. The ability to separate yourself from your situation and treat each attempt to hit a shot as a single, singular effort is another type of skill altogether. Some players have it, and some don’t. I believe that having that ability can be the difference in player’s level of success. Sportswriters like to call it “choking” when a player hits a bad shot under pressure, but the research would indicate that a certain amount of failure under duress is to be expected, and in my mind the guys that have the skills to handle the pressure do better more often. I also think that the better a player’s technique the less likely a small change in the physical action will cause catastrophic results.

Stan: So practice does matter.

Wayne: Of course it does. Look at it this way. You are now capable of shooting in the 70’s. This is a huge step for you. You would love to shoot in the 70’s every time you play, but you are not that consistent. Your “level” can be defined as your average score over time in all sorts of circumstances. You do not want to be “consistent” until you get a lot better. Who wants to shoot 88 every time they play? I’d rather have the odd great round and try to figure out what happens in the bad ones than always play the same mediocre game. You are trying to repeat what you do when you play your best, and that means you should keep practicing. Think about how you came to be able to shoot that score in the first place. We worked on every part of your game. When you play well you keep the ball in play, hit good shots from the fairway, and save shots around and on the green. You make decent decisions, something we worked on in playing lessons. You choose when to be aggressive and when to play safe, which is all part of learning to play smart. When you play a particularly bad round it shouldn’t be hard to figure out what happened. Go over the round and you will see where the shots were lost, which will then tell you what you need to focus on when you practice. You literally learn something every time you play.

Stan: So, I shouldn’t expect to play well every time, but if I keep working on my game properly I should be able to make the bad scores less bad and the good scores even better.

Wayne: Exactly. Like I said, that’s what improving is all about.

Stan: OK. Now, I have another question. I know you always tell me not to watch the Golf Channel and to especially stay away from infomercials, but I can’t help it. I’ll watch the European Tour or highlights of some major and the next thing I know that show is over and an infomercial is banging me over the head. Wedges, putters, drivers, swing aids, DVDs, it doesn’t matter what, they all seem great to me.

Wayne: Of course they do. That’s what the people who make the infomercials are paid to do. They know how to sell stuff. They know what makes you want to buy what they are selling. Every person on the show has a script, they all get paid, and every word is designed to hook you and reel you in. They pay the most respected teachers and players they can find to expound on the benefits of whatever it is, and you’re supposed to think “man, if that guy thinks it’s great it really must be”.

Stan: But some of the stuff must be pretty good, right?

Wayne: Sure it is, but the problem is that you have no way of knowing if it is specifically good for you. One thing is for sure: nothing is good for everyone. It’s always stupid to buy a club you’ve never hit, or even held in your hands. That goes for any club, driver to putter. Now, if you just want to try something because it sounds good and you have so much money you don’t care if you waste it, go ahead. Chances are the thing will be sitting in your garage in a month. The same goes for swing aids. What might be good for your buddy might have absolutely nothing to do with what you need to help your own swing. In fact, there’s a chance that it might just make you worse. And how do you know? You don’t.

Swing videos that espouse a certain method or theory are a different story. If you are into the swing and like to compile information about the possible variations in teaching philosophy then you might enjoy buying some instructional packages. In this case the infomercial might even be helpful in explaining a bit about the substance of the ideas being sold. It’s always “buyer beware”, but you can probably count on the top instructors to put out interesting, informative presentations. Jim McLean’s compilation of Ben Hogan swings along with analysis is a recent offering that I found to be very good, as was Jim Hardy’s “On Plane Golf”, which has the huge advantage of offering drills performed by successful tour players that he teaches. It’s good stuff, but it all needs to be interpreted and applied specifically to the individual in order to be helpful. Unfortunately, someone like me is the person who is going to do that for you, and you have to pay for that, after you’ve paid for the product.

Stan: I hear you. Since you mentioned it, I’ve been hearing about this “one plane swing” deal lately, and the infomercial was really good. Should I be doing this? Are you teaching this?

Wayne: Stan, I want you to think back to when we started together, then try to recall everything we’ve done to get to this point. I’ve told you over and over that there is nothing harder than playing decent golf. You can’t buy a game. There are no miracle methods, no universal cures for all of our golfing ills. It is an endlessly complex and fascinating subject, a journey that fills a lifetime. A DVD is not going to be the answer. It might push you in a different direction, but I can assure you that unless you are standing in front of Jim Hardy or someone who fully understands what Hardy is talking about you are not going to be able to interpret what you need from just watching by yourself. Only the sublimely talented have ever been able to discern the game without help. And since you are not Sam Snead, we have proven that with help you have been able to progress to the point that you can play a more advanced game.

That being said, what Hardy is proposing in his book and DVDs is quite interesting and worthy of watching, and if it inspires you to think about the golf swing and to question what you have been doing then it certainly would be worth the expense of purchasing it. The fact that I think that the information is unique and original and could be helpful not only to a lot of my students but to my own swing as well is only a bonus, and might help us continue to improve. I do want you to know, however, that the term “one plane swing” serves as a “hook” for mass sales and does not exist in the real world. In other words, there is no such thing as a “one plane” swing. All swings shift planes, whether you are talking about the movement of the shaft or the relationship of the shaft and shoulder planes. There is a relative difference between swings that shift more (what Hardy would call a “two-plane” swing) and those where the shaft and shoulder planes are closer together, but there is no such thing as a swing that is precisely “one plane”. But, it sounds cool, and it sells, so what the hell.

Stan: Alright, I’ve got that straight.  Now, what do you think about Michelle Wie?  Should she be playing in all these men’s events?

Wayne: Stan, I have to tell you, I’m tired of talking.  Now, either hit a few, or I will.  We’ll talk about Michelle some other time.